UPDATE: Peters knocks out Rocky in U.S House race

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Gary Peters was successful Tuesday night in his bid against challenger Rocky Raczkowski in the hotly contested race for the 9th Congressional District.

With all 291 precincts reported, Peters had 126,155 votes to Raczkowski's 119,673 votes.

Peters, a 51-year-old Democrat from Bloomfield Township, hoped that Oakland County voters had enough confidence in him to give him a second term. Raczkowski is a 41-year-old Republican and resident of Farmington Hills.

The candidates were extremely close in the polls going into election day.

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Dave Dulio, chairman of the Political Science Department at Oakland University, said he saw no surprises in how the election results were playing out.

"I think it's going just about as we would expect," he said.

Dulio said the main issue on voters' minds was clearly the economy.

Peters has said he decided to run for re-election because "we've got a lot more work to do to get Oakland County turned around and create more jobs and get folks back to work, which is by far the most important thing we have to deal with."

Raczkowski said he's grown frustrated by what's going on in Washington.

The race grew increasingly contentious as the election neared. During a debate, Raczkowski attacked Peters for voting mostly with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Peters criticized Raczkowski for being the defendant in a lawsuit accusing him of fraud and theft from a ticket company he used to run.

The Peters-Raczkowski race was among the more contested this election season because Peters won his seat in 2008 by defeating a longtime Republican incumbent. Republicans badly wanted to reclaim the seat.

While Peters and Raczkowski were the front-runners in the race, voters saw six names on the ballot. Also running were Libertarian Party candidate Adam Goodman, Green Party candidate Douglas Campbell, and independent candidates Bob Gray and Matthew Kuofie. Goodman had 2,603 votes, Campbell had 2,490 votes, Gray had 1,871 votes and Kuofie had 648 votes.

Last week, Goodman announced that he was backing Raczkowski. Gray followed, posting a statement on his website saying that he and his team offered "their full support for Rocky Raczkowski."

Peters has served as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, a state senator, a Rochester Hills city councilman, the Michigan lottery commissioner and a university professor. The married father of three has a background in investment advising. He ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 1990.

Raczkowski has 24 years of military service in the U.S. Army under his belt. He is married, the former chairman and CEO of a company called Star Tickets and served as a state representative for six years. He had an unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in 2002.